Manchester United continued their mega reconstruction this week with the signature of Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid. The Argentine cost the club a whopping £60 million as Louis van Gaal looks to improve what has been a flagging unit.

After the defeat to MK Dons in the League Cup in midweek it became abundantly clear that this deal was needed and, in all honesty, a few more arrivals would not go amiss at Old Trafford.

But Di Maria also admitted upon his arrival that he would not have forced a switch from Real Madrid - rather the club wanted rid of him.

Real Madrid have spent big this summer on the likes of James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos. Therefore they needed to balance their books due to FFP regulations. With a need need to ship out a couple of big earners it now seems Di Maria was number one, and Xabi Alonso, who is Bayern Munich bound, was number two.

Some reports suggested that Di Maria was demanding a mammoth salary at the club, but now his father has come out and made it clear that Real Madrid did very little to convince his son that a Bernabeu stay was his best option.

"Madrid never offered him €6m. Their ultimate offer was €5m, which represented a €1.5m payrise. The first problems that arose were the result of financial reasons. He joined Madrid for a certain salary and they left it at that. Angel was never really appreciated at Madrid. It was always as if they didn't want him at the club. They never showed him any affection.

"Angel was tired of always having to prove himself over and over again. He had already proven himself. Madrid have lost a key player, someone who could make the difference at any given moment."

But despite the apparent bitter break-up with his former club his father also confirmed his son is more than happy with the move to United, declaring:

Mathew Nash

I’m Mathew Nash a 27 year old graduate in Sports Studies and I have an insatiable love for sport. With a particularly keen interest for the madcap world of football I have always been known amongst friends as a beacon for bizarre sporting trivia and knowledge. My other passion is for writing and hopefully combining the two will create a superb and entertaining marriage that will create, divide and share opinion.Mathew is a correspondent for the NextGen Series, Ligue 1 and Primeira Liga.